Joshua Wisch – Honolulu Civil Beathttps://www.civilbeat.org
Honolulu Civil Beat - Investigative ReportingTue, 30 Oct 2018 15:55:18 -1000en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3Protect State Constitution By Voting ‘No’ On ConConhttps://www.civilbeat.org/2018/10/protect-state-constitution-by-voting-no-on-concon/
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 10:01:18 +0000https://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1306469A number of people have asked me why the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii is opposed to holding a state constitutional convention. As one of Hawaii’s leading civil rights advocates, some are curious as to why the ACLU is urging people to vote “no.” Around the country, we see government and special interests participating […]

]]>A number of people have asked me why the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii is opposed to holding a state constitutional convention. As one of Hawaii’s leading civil rights advocates, some are curious as to why the ACLU is urging people to vote “no.”

Around the country, we see government and special interests participating in the dismantling of labor rights, invasions of privacy, rolling back hard-won protections for sexual minorities, and the advancement of private ownership of once-public spaces, just to name a few. Those same systems of power would like nothing more than a crack at our state constitution.

Hawaii’s constitution provides more civil rights protections than the U.S. Constitution and a ConCon opens the entire document up for revision. The ACLU exists to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in our state and our country. For the ACLU, the risk of losing some of those rights by holding a ConCon at this time outweighs the possibility of enhancing them through one.

Here’s one timely example of how we have more to lose than to gain by holding a ConCon now.

Roe V. Wade

The Hawaii constitution explicitly includes a right to privacy in its text.

There are many reasons it’s critical for us as a state to protect that right, but here’s one in particular. We all watched the hearings to confirm now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. One of the central parts of the debate over Kavanaugh’s confirmation was whether he would provide the fifth vote on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade — the case that established, nationwide, a woman’s right to choose how to control her own body, including the right to abortion.

The author argues that a ConCon would not necessarily do an “end-run” around the Legislature.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

What some people may not realize about Roe is that the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision in that case was really the right to privacy. And that right to privacy is not specifically drafted in the United States Constitution. Rather, with cases like Roe and — before it — Griswold v. Connecticut (which invalidated a Connecticut ban on birth control on the grounds that it violated the right to marital privacy) — the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to include a right to privacy.

But the right to privacy is explicitly written into the text of the Hawaii constitution. So even if Justice Kavanaugh provides the fifth vote to eviscerate the right to privacy that has been interpreted to be part of the U.S. Constitution and thereby eliminates a woman’s right to bodily autonomy at the federal level, that right will still be protected in Hawaii because it’s specifically listed in our framing document.

Other Rights

The right to privacy isn’t the only thing at stake. While the U.S. Constitution can and does set one floor for our civil rights — below which no state may go — individual state constitutions can set a different, higher floor. The Hawaii constitution does just that.

Beyond the right to privacy, there are a number of ways people’s individual rights and liberties are explicitly protected in the Hawaii constitution that are not as explicit in the U.S. Constitution. Just a few examples include equality of rights regardless of sex (the equivalent of the Equal Rights Amendment, which still has not been ratified as part of the U.S. Constitution), workers’ rights to organize, the right not to be imprisoned because of debt, the right to keep your partisan affiliation private, protections against segregation in the military, and more.

By some counts, the last ConCon saw over 1,000 individual changes to the Hawaii Constitution.

People on both sides of this issue are sincere and passionate about Hawaii’s future. In a recent Civil Beat editorial, issues like legislative term limits, ballot initiatives, school funding, mail-in voting, and government transparency were listed as reasons to support a ConCon. These issues are complex, and deserve to be debated, but they are already part of ongoing conversations between the public and our lawmakers.

For instance, mail-in voting is actually being tested on Kauai, with an eye to expanding it statewide, and voting access is further strengthened by same-day voter registration, newly available for 2018. So, convening a ConCon is not the only way — or necessarily even the best way — to debate these issues.

Just as important, a ConCon cannot be limited to these issues. Once you open it up, it is wide open. By some counts, the last ConCon saw over 1,000 individual changes to the Hawaii Constitution.

If the people of Hawaii want to change the constitution, there is a way to do so without open-heart surgery on the document. Since 1978 there have been more than 70 amendments proposed to our constitution, over half of which voters have actually passed.

Additionally, many of the changes people suggest don’t need to be changes to the constitution itself. We can change our laws both at the state and county level through advocacy and working with our lawmakers. People need to be aware of and active in our legislative process to make those changes, arguably even more involved than they would be in convening a ConCon.

Some say we need a ConCon because legislators are self-interested, won’t listen to us, and will ignore calls for constitutional amendments or legal changes. But remember that the legislators would have considerable control over the ConCon itself. According to the Office of Elections, the Legislature will decide the number of delegates to the convention, the areas from which they will be elected, and the manner in which the convention will convene. There is also nothing preventing the legislators themselves from running to be delegates to the convention. A ConCon is not the end-run around the legislators some people may envision.

If you want to change government the answer is the hard work of daily involvement in civic discourse: submitting testimony, showing up at the Legislature and the County Council, running for office or working on campaigns, and above all, voting. We have one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country. A ConCon is not going to fix that. Consistent, active, civic engagement in the normal legislative process is what we need.

Hawaii’s constitution is one of the most progressive in the nation. It needs our care and protection, especially in these turbulent and uncertain times. Once a ConCon is convened, there’s really no limit to the types of changes that can be made. We have a lot to lose by cracking it wide open — and in voting “no” this year, we are standing up to defend it and protect the civil rights and liberties it affords us all.

]]>ACLU Condemns Citizenship Query On Censushttps://www.civilbeat.org/2018/04/aclu-condemns-citizenship-query-on-census/
Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:01:56 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1274467The Trump administration announced this week that it will require people to state on their 2020 census forms whether they are United States citizens. While at first blush this may seem fine, in fact it violates the Constitution, discriminates against states with large immigrant communities and will bias and undermine the results of the census. […]

]]>The Trump administration announced this week that it will require people to state on their 2020 census forms whether they are United States citizens. While at first blush this may seem fine, in fact it violates the Constitution, discriminates against states with large immigrant communities and will bias and undermine the results of the census.

The ACLU of Hawaii condemns this move.

The United States Constitution requires that every 10 years an “actual enumeration” of all people living in the country be conducted and that representatives be apportioned among the several states “according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.”

The government conducts the census as a “point in time” count of all people living in the United States to satisfy these constitutional mandates. Because this requires an “actual enumeration” of “the whole number of persons in each State,” it cannot be limited to any one group, including just citizens.

The U.S. Capitol, Jan. 20, 2017. The author urges Congress to intervene in the Trump administration’s meddling with the 2020 Census.

Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat

The clearly intended effect of including this citizenship question is to scare non-citizens and their citizen relatives from answering the census at all. This is bullying, race-baiting and despicable. And it destabilizes one of the pillars of our representative democracy.

The census data has far-reaching effects. It is used to determine where schools and libraries will be placed, the shape and makeup of voting districts, how roads and highways are planned, how many members of Congress each state gets, and more.

The U.S. Census Bureau, charged with collecting this data through mailed surveys and field visits once every ten years, must discharge its duty in a manner that is free of any partisan agenda. But census data can be and has been exploited by the government.

This is bullying, race-baiting and despicable.

In Hawaii, we’ve been witness to internment, one of the darkest periods in American history. It was made even darker by the fact that during World War II, census data from California and Washington, D.C., was weaponized to locate, round up, and inter Japanese-Americans.

The Trump administration’s decision to use the census to divide citizens from non-citizens generates frightening echoes of this terrible moment in our history. It violates our democratic ideals and hurts states like Hawaii which welcome — and depend upon — immigration.

Stand Up, Be Counted

Fortunately, people are speaking out.

Five former Census Bureau directors — both Republicans and Democrats — have announced their opposition to this decision. An increasing number of state attorneys general have filed lawsuits to prevent this.

A number of United States senators — including Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz — are co-sponsoring legislation that would bar this question from the census or prevent these types of last minute changes without congressional oversight. In the House, both Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard have indicated that they will support similar efforts.

We support these efforts and ask all states, all officials, and all people to fight this affront to our democratic values. The census must count people in all communities, not just those whom any single administration favors.

Please join us.

Stand up and be counted.

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